Prerequisites

To use much of the Docker extension functionality, you will need to install Docker on your machine and set up on the system path.

Linux

Since VS Code runs as a non-root user, you will also need to follow the steps in “Manage Docker as a non-root user” from Post-installation steps for Linux for the extension to be able to access docker.

Editing

Docker commands

Many of the most common Docker and docker compose commands are built right into the Command Palette (F1).

Docker View

The Docker extension contributes a new Docker View to VS Code. Within the View, the Explorer lets you view and manage your Images, Containers, and browse your Docker Hub registry. If the Azure Account extension is installed, you can browse your Azure Container Registries as well.

The right click context menu provides quick access to the same rich set of commands found in the Command Palette (F1).

You can move the View up or down by dragging the Docker icon and you can hide the View by right clicking on the icon and choosing Hide. To bring it back, right click on the Activity Bar area and check the Docker item.

The showExplorer configuration setting controls the visibility of the Docker View.

"docker.showExplorer": false

Docker Hub Login

The first time you expand the Docker Hub node you'll be prompted to log in to your Docker Hub account.

Your user name and password are stored in your operating system credentials vault (for example macOS keychain, Windows Credential Store) so that you don't need to log in every time. You can log out of Docker Hub by right clicking on the Docker Hub label and choosing log out. This will delete the credentials from the OS store.

Deploying images to Azure App Service

With the Docker Explorer you can deploy images from Docker Hub Registries or Azure Container Registries directly to an Azure App Service instance, as detailed in this getting started guide. This functionality requires installing the Azure Account extension and an Azure Subscription. If you do not have an Azure subscription, sign up today for a free 30 day account and get $200 in Azure Credits to try out any combination of Azure services.

To log into Azure, press F1 and search for Azure Sign In. You will then sign into your account using the Device Login flow. Click on "Copy & Open" to open your default browser.

Paste in the access code and continue the sign in process.

You can now right click on an image in Docker Hub or an Azure Container Registry and choose "Deploy Image to Azure App Service".

From here you will be prompted for a Resource Group, location, an App Service Plan, and a globally unique website name.

Azure CLI

Microsoft ships the latest Azure CLI as a Docker image. You can easily launch a container running the CLI from the Command Palette (press F1 and search for Docker: Azure CLI). The extension will then run an interactive terminal attached to the container.

After the container is started, you will be prompted to login to your Azure account. From there, set the subscription you want to work with using az account set (you can see all of your subscriptions with az account list). You do not need to login in every time you run the container because the extension volume mounts the local $HOME/.azure folder to the container's $HOME/.azure folder.

Private registries (Preview)

This build includes preview support for connecting to private registries (such as those described in Docker Hub documentation). At the moment, OAuth is not supported, only basic authentication. We hope to extend this support in the future.

Self-signed and corporate certificates

If you are using a self-signed or corporate CA certificate (e.g. for a private Docker registry) and have the certificate authority's certificate registered in the Windows or Mac certificate store, you will want to use the following setting:

"docker.importCertificates": true

This causes the extension automatically pick up system-wide certificates. Leaving it at the default false means the default Node.js list of trusted certificates will be used. You can fine-tune the values this way:

Upon debugging, a Docker image will be built and a container will be run based on that image. The container will have volumes mapped to the locally-built application and the .NET Core debugger. If the Docker container exposes port 80, after the debugger is attached the browser will be launched and navigate to the application's initial page.

NOTE: you may see errors in the debug console when debugging ends (e.g. "Error from pipe program 'docker': ..."). This appears due to debugger issue #2439 and should not impact debugging.

Most properties of the configuration are optional and will be inferred from the project. If not, or if there are additional customizations to be made to the Docker image build or container run process, those can be added under the dockerBuild and dockerRun properties of the configuration, respectively.

Application Customizations

When possible, the location and output of the application will be inferred from the workspace folder opened in VS Code. When they cannot be inferred, these properties can be used to make them explicit:

Property

Description

Default

appFolder

The root folder of the application

The workspace folder

appProject

The path to the project file

The first .csproj or .fsproj found in the application folder

appOutput

The application folder relative path to the output assembly

The TargetPath MS Build property

You can specify either appFolder or appProject but should not specify both.

Configuration Settings

The Docker extension comes with a number of useful configuration settings allowing you to customize your workflow.

Setting

Description

Default Value

docker.attachShellCommand.linuxContainer

Attach command to use for Linux containers

/bin/sh

docker.attachShellCommand.windowsContainer

Attach command to use for Windows containers

powershell

docker.dockerComposeBuild

Run docker-compose with the --build argument, defaults to true

true

docker.dockerComposeDetached

Run docker-compose with the --d (detached) argument, defaults to true

true

docker.defaultRegistryPath

Default registry and path when tagging an image

""

docker.explorerRefreshInterval

Explorer refresh interval, default is 1000ms

1000

docker.host

Host to connect to (same as setting the DOCKER_HOST environment variable)

""

docker.imageBuildContextPath

Build context PATH to pass to Docker build command

""

docker.languageserver.diagnostics.deprecatedMaintainer

Controls the diagnostic severity for the deprecated MAINTAINER instruction

warning

docker.languageserver.diagnostics.directiveCasing

Controls the diagnostic severity for parser directives that are not written in lowercase

warning

docker.languageserver.diagnostics.emptyContinuationLine

Controls the diagnostic severity for flagging empty continuation lines found in instructions that span multiple lines

warning

docker.languageserver.diagnostics.instructionCasing

Controls the diagnostic severity for instructions that are not written in uppercase

warning

docker.languageserver.diagnostics.instructionCmdMultiple

Controls the diagnostic severity for flagging a Dockerfile with multiple CMD instructions

warning

docker.languageserver.diagnostics.instructionEntrypointMultiple

Controls the diagnostic severity for flagging a Dockerfile with multiple ENTRYPOINT instructions

warning

docker.languageserver.diagnostics.instructionHealthcheckMultiple

Controls the diagnostic severity for flagging a Dockerfile with multiple HEALTHCHECK instructions

warning

docker.languageserver.diagnostics.instructionJSONInSingleQuotes

Controls the diagnostic severity for JSON instructions that are written incorrectly with single quotes

warning

docker.languageserver.diagnostics.instructionWorkdirRelative

Controls the diagnostic severity for WORKDIR instructions that do not point to an absolute path

warning

docker.promptOnSystemPrune

Prompt for confirmation when running System Prune command

true

docker.showExplorer

Show or hide the Explorer

true

docker.truncateLongRegistryPaths

Truncate long Image and Container registry paths in the Explorer

false

docker.truncateMaxLength

Maximum number of characters for long registry paths in the Explorer, including ellipsis

10

Installation

In VS Code, open the Extension Viewlet, type in Docker, locate the extension and click on Install. Once the extension is installed you will be prompted to restart Visual Studio Code which will only take (literally) a couple of seconds.

Of course, you will need to have Docker installed on your computer in order to run commands from the Command Palette (F1, type in Docker).

Running commands on Linux

By default, Docker runs as the root user, requiring other users to access it with sudo. This extension does not assume root access, so you will need to create a Unix group called docker and add users to it. Instructions can be found here: Create a Docker group

Connecting to docker-machine

The default connection of the extension is to connect to the local docker daemon. You can connect to a docker-machine instance if you launch Visual Studio Code and have the DOCKER_HOST environment variable set to a valid host or if you set the docker.host configuration setting.

If the docker daemon is using TLS, the DOCKER_CERT_PATH environment variable must also be set (e.g. $HOME\.docker\machine\machines\default). See docker documentation for more information.

Contributing

There are a couple of ways you can contribute to this repository:

Ideas, feature requests and bugs: We are open to all ideas and we want to get rid of bugs! Use the Issues section to either report a new issue, provide your ideas or contribute to existing threads

Documentation: Found a typo or strangely worded sentences? Submit a PR!

Code: Contribute bug fixes, features or design changes.

Legal

Before we can accept your pull request you will need to sign a Contribution License Agreement. All you need to do is to submit a pull request, then the PR will get appropriately labelled (for example cla-required, cla-norequired, cla-signed, cla-already-signed). If you already signed the agreement we will continue with reviewing the PR, otherwise system will tell you how you can sign the CLA. Once you sign the CLA all future PR's will be labeled as cla-signed.

Troubleshooting

I get "unauthorized: authentication required" in the terminal when executing some commands, such as "Docker: push".

Make sure you are signed in to the Docker Hub or Azure container registry from the docker CLI via docker login (using your username, not your e-mail address).

If you are using an Azure container registry, you will need to get the username and password from Azure by right-clicking on the Azure container registry in the extension and selecting "Browse in the Azure Portal", then selecting the "Access Keys" tab.

Finally, execute docker login, for example:

docker login exampleazurecontainerregistry.azurecr.io

and respond with the username and password specified by Azure.

I'm on Linux and get the error "Unable to connect to Docker, is the Docker daemon running?"

Telemetry

This extension collects telemetry data to help us build a better experience for building micro-service applications with Docker and VS Code. We only collect data on which commands are executed. We do not collect any information about image names, paths, etc. The extension respects the telemetry.enableTelemetry setting which you can learn more about in our FAQ.